Boston archdiocese lists clergy accused of sexually abusing children

Friday

Aug 26, 2011 at 12:01 AMAug 26, 2011 at 2:46 AM

After two years of consultation and planning, the Boston archdiocese has released the names of 157 Catholic priests who have been either confirmed or accused of sexually abusing children. There are no previously unpublicized names on the list.

Lane Lambert

After two years of consultation and planning, the Boston archdiocese has released the names of 157 Catholic priests who have been either confirmed or accused of sexually abusing children. There are no previously unpublicized names on the list.

The release was made when the archdiocese posted a new website that includes the priests’ parish history and the status of their accusations or guilt. The list also includes two deacons, for a total of 159 clerics.

The new list includes more than 30 defrocked or suspended priests who were assigned to South Shore parishes between the 1960s and the 1980s. Among them are some of the archdiocese’s most notorious abusers, such as Paul Shanley and John Hanlon. Nine of those who served on the South Shore are deceased, including John Geoghan, a former parish priest in Hingham who was murdered in prison.

The Boston archdiocese joins 31 other American dioceses that have already posted such lists. The others include the Baltimore, Phoenix and San Diego dioceses.

The Rev. Richard Erickson, vicar general of the Boston archdiocese, said in a Patriot Ledger interview that “a handful” haven’t already been identified from archdiocese announcements. The others have been identified by attorneys for victims, or advocacy groups such as Bishop Accountability.org.

The Rev. Erickson, Cardinal Sean O’Malley’s chief of staff, said the only accused parish priests who won’t be on the archdiocese’s website are those who were identified by victims after the priest had died.

“If we are missing anything, we welcome people to call,” the Rev. Erickson said.

Bishop Accountability and a Weymouth attorney who has handled scores of victim lawsuits were immediately skeptical that the new list is complete.

“You’re not getting all the names. There are probably a lot of names that have not come out,” attorney Carmen Durso said.

Anne Barrett Doyle of Bishop Accountability applauded the online list as an overdue first step, but she said Cardinal O’Malley “chose the safe course,” with no new names.

“There are many victims of Boston priests who will not find the names of their perpetrators on today’s list,” Doyle said. “Their misery and isolation will be deepened by today’s disclosure.”

Durso said some abusers may still be unidentified because mediation agreements are confidential. He also said he has filed 30 new victim lawsuits this year, and knows that other attorneys have filed dozens more.

“The claims have not gone away,” Durso said.

In an open letter that accompanies the Web posting, Cardinal O’Malley says the new list includes these categories of accused priests, with their status shown:

Clergy found guilty of child sexual abuse.

Those defrocked after being accused of sex abuse.

Priests on administrative leave while their accusations are heard and decided.

Those already defrocked before accusations were made.

Deceased priests who have been publicly accused and whose cases are not finished.

In most cases, those clergy died before the archdiocese received the accusations.

The Web posting includes a separate list of priests accused and cleared. Some of those have returned to active ministry. It doesn’t include clergy from religious orders, because Cardinal O’Malley said their cases aren’t under archdiocese authority.

The Rev. Erickson told The Patriot Ledger that the Web list is “one more step” in the archdiocese’s efforts to help heal clergy victims and regain the full trust of faithful Catholics.

He said Boston’s policy for dealing with abuse accusations – and letting the public know about them – is now “one of the most robust in the country.” He said that is as it should be, since Boston was the epicenter of a nationwide clergy scandal that erupted almost a decade ago, starting here in 2002.

The scandal led to the resignation of Cardinal O’Malley’s predecessor, Cardinal Bernard Law.

In a letter that accompanies the Web posting, Cardinal O’Malley says the archdiocese’s new policy is “consistent with if not more expansive than civil law,” and follows what he describes as “a substantial decline” in the number of abuse accusations since 1990.

Even so, the cardinal says in the letter that he hopes the church’s new actions will further help the healing of victims, whose cases reach back to the 1960s.

“Having met with hundreds of survivors, I know firsthand the scars you carry,” Cardinal O’Malley writes, “and I carry with me every day the pain of the Church’s failures.”

Lay groups such as Voice of the Faithful and Bishop Accountability have been pressing the archdiocese for years to issue a comprehensive list of the accused. The Rev. Erickson said the cardinal and others were “mindful” of those pleas but needed the longer time to make sure “due-process rights” were respected along with the central aim of better protecting children in the parishes.

He said the logistics of combining previous lists and personal data and preparing it all for the Web posting also took longer than expected.

The consultation process included the cardinal, executive cabinet members, bishops, a lay pastoral advisory board, a council of priest representatives and a review board with clergy victims and family members.

The Rev. Erickson said the archdiocese consulted with some of the dioceses that had already posted lists. Church officials kept Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office informed on the project – her staff was updated as recently as last week – but did not include the office in any legal consultations.

Lane Lambert may be reached at llambert@ledger.com.

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